Assessment of the level of investment attractiveness of Ukrainian economy using multidimensional average method

Abstract

In the article it has been estimated the level of investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy using multidimensional average method. For this purpose, the structure of national investment attractiveness was identified and five main components that are political, economic, social, scientific, technical, natural and geographical. The political component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: world press freedom index, economic freedom index, political freedom index, and ease of doing business index. The economic component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: GDP per capita, unemployment rate and government debt in GDP. The social component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: literacy rate, Gini coefficient, happiness index. The scientific and technical component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: number of scientists and engineers per million people, number of technological parks in the country, the research and development (R&D) effectiveness index. The natural and geographical components of national investment attractiveness are characterized by the following indicators: size of electricity production, share of renewable resources in region electricity generation, percent of agricultural land in the country. The listed indicators were distributed on stimulants and disincentives and normalized. Results of calculations show that the level of investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy is quite low (ICIA = 0.393) and even lower than that in most analyzed countries (by 0.012 compared with Poland, by 0.023 compared with Hungary, by 0.049 compared with Romania, by 0.06 compared with Bulgaria), but it is higher than the level of investment attractiveness of Moldavian economies. The integral coefficient of investment attractiveness in Ukraine is characterized by the highest value of the general coefficient of natural resource component (GCN&G = 0.368). For comparison, in Poland, the value of that indicator equals 0.284, in Slovakia it equals 0.231, in the Czech Republic it equals 0.264. Instead, in accordance with the general coefficients of scientific and technical components, Ukraine is an outsider of Eastern Europe: GCR&D = 0.162 in Ukraine, GCR&D = 0.363 in Moldova, GCR&D = 0.401 in Slovakia, GCR&D = 0.442 in Romania. In addition, general coefficients of economic and social components are quite low (GCE = 0.435 and GСС = 0.412 accordingly) due to several institutional and financial factors, namely imperfect legal framework, low level of trust of major market participants in government, low financial literacy of population, high probability of non-repayment of loans. To raise the investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy, it is necessary to create new industries and markets, reform the taxation system, stabilize the banking system, improve the work of insurance companies, create institutions that would be involved in mobilizing investment resources for specific investment projects and programs.